#648 - people would like me back in the box

 

10.x.21

648

2.283

people would like me back in the box

 

and they are kind enough to imagine for me

the kind of box that should be

 

safe there with steep sides

no risk of out at all

unless they take me on a lead

 

fed crumbs

and can flutter

the clipped wings

just so high

 

it’s all I can do to remember

how it was I managed to paint a way out

shall I phrase it up for you?

 

each language a cage in its own right

and all the world’s horizon

 

must be why I took off

work as yet unframed

 

I guess it was that kind of kindness

fall over yourself for

 

adjust the hours around for fact

here there brightened

just a thought

 

lived in a tree for a while

but they lured me back with sweets

 

a lark went up

one leafed through

 

they tracked me with device

I bought new every year

 

a fanfare

could care less or couldn’t?

no one can decide

 

tried underground for a bit

and called it pioneering

 

then some cicada hatching sang

a mystery of voices there

and mine, the one too much

still clung

that was the seventh year!

 

I heard a clock tick on beyond

had an exercise bike and treadmill

but mainly did laps

 

people set their watches by me

 

I took off my pants for a dance

and that rhymes

 

in just the space slept

I could salute the sun

 

every day’s my birthday

since I’ve been the cat

 

ages go by

and find me grey

still on a roll

 

they’ve been trying to get me back in the box

there is now a question though

whether I’ll fit

a single somersault could demolish it

 

and – do you know? – I’ve been giving it some thought

and confound it!

I just might not go back in there